Saudi Aramco Narrows Arab Light Asia OSP Discount to $1.40

By Sherry Su

(Bloomberg) — Co. raises official selling price to a discount of $1.40/bbl to Oman/Dubai benchmark crudes for Feb. shipments, from Jan. OSP of $2 discount, according to e-mail from co.

• Jan. price was lowest since at least June 2000 when Bloomberg started compiling data
• Asia OSP discount for Arab Medium was narrowed
• Asia OSP discount for Arab Heavy was narrowed

Co. cuts Feb. official selling price of Arab Light for Northwest European buyers to $4.65/bbl discount to ICE Bwave benchmark vs $3.15 discount for Jan., according to e-mail from co.

• Mediterranean formula price for Arab Light also cut; to -$4.60 for Feb. from -$2.50 in Jan.
• Smaller changes applied to prices for U.S. buyers; light and medium grades cut, heavy grade raised

Saudi lifts oil price for Asia cuts in Europe

Jan 5 (FT) — Here’s more data for oil watchers to chew over – Saudi Arabia has just issued its selling prices for February.

Having rocked the market after two consecutive months of price cuts – first to Asia, then to the US, Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, said in a statement on Monday that it would cut prices for all oil grades to customers in Northwest Europe by between $1.40 to $1.70.

However, in Asia, where it has been fighting for market share against Colombia and Nigeria (both of which have been kicked out of its traditional market in North America amid the shale oil boom), it raised prices across all oil grades by between 55 and 70 cents in a sign perhaps that demand from the region is growing once again.

For the US, it raised prices for heavy grade oil by 20 cents but cut prices on the other grades by between 10 and 60 cents.